Harry Potter and the Fourth Task
by kamuinoyume
Summary: The Founders of Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Hogwarts are not satisfied with the tasks the children received, so they decide to have a Try wizard Tournaments of their own.
1. Chapter 1

Disclame: I don't own anithing!!! (unfortunately).

Sumary: The Founders of Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Hogwarts are not satisfied with the tasks the children received, so they decide to have a Try wizard Tournaments of their own.

**Chapter 1: The Founders Game**

"On 3!" Harry said and Cedric nodded.

1…2…3

Both boys grabbed a hold of the cup and they were pulled into a whirlwind of colors.

Harry landed heavily on what seemed to be marble and he heard three sickening thump coming from somewhere nearby. 'Wait a second, 3?! Wasn't there supposed to be just one?' He thought confused. He lifted his head from the floor and tried to look around only to find out that his glasses had fallen off. "Is anybody there?" He asked and searched the ground for his glasses.

"Harry, are you ok?" Cedric's voice came from somewhere nearby.

"Yeah! I lost my glasses but I'm fine, somehow." He answered relieved. "Hey Cedric, do you know where we are?"

"Not really," Cedric said looking around.

The place could definitely top the list of weirdest things Cedric had ever seen. It had a marble flat floor with absolutely no designs on it and everywhere else you turned there was only black. Like they were stuck in a giant pit which was illuminated from below. The only things that weren't composed of monochromatic colors around here were Harry, his glasses and himself…and Fleur and Krum? 'Now what were they doing here?'

"Harry, were Krum and Fleur anywhere near us when we grabbed the cup?" He asked confused.

"What are you talking about? They were disqualified, remember?" Harry said and cheered as he found his glasses. He quickly put them on and looked around the room. "What the…?"

"I know. Weird, isn't it?" Harry nodded. "And look over there!" Cedric pointed at Fleur and Krum, who were beginning to wake.

Fleur was still a little baffled thanks to the bump on the head she got from her Durmstrang rival, so naturally when she wok up in a place she could only compare to a nuts institution she thought she was dreaming, that up until she heard Krum moaning in discomfort nearby. She jumped to her feet and quickly pulled out her wand. She wasn't going to let the guy knock her out again.

Both Harry and Cedric aimed their wands at Krum when they saw him waking up and prepared for an attack.

As Krum opened his eyes and saw what was in front of him he lifted his hands in surrender and bowed his head in shame. "Relax, guys, it's me." He said and then cursed when he realized just how stupid that sounded.

"Vat I'm trying to say is. I'm not under the imperious curs anymore." He tried to explain but Fleur wasn't buying it and apparently neither were Harry and Cedric.

"How can we be sure?" Cedric asked.

"You just have to believe." An annoying shriek resounded in the pit/place/whatever.

"Vo said that?" Krum asked while pulling his own wand out.

"It was I!" A man (old guy more like it), dressed in a gray suit with a blue shirt underneath and blue jeans (who appeared to be floating in mid air) answered. "I am the memory of the great Salazar Slytherin." He said in a majestic voice.

"Dr. House?" The kids asked confused.

"Oh, damn it! Has everybody seen that show?" Salazar/House, asked annoyed. "A person can't go to an audition for a role because everybody starts shouting: _Dr. House! Greg! House!_ Wherever you go! Seriously it's enough to drive even the most rational man insane!"

"Oh shut up Hou- I mean Salazar! It's not just you who has it hard." Lisa Cuddy appeared next to House/ Salazar.

"Oh, the annoying sidekick has arrived!" Salazar cheered mockingly. "By the way, she's playing Rowena Ravenclaw." He whispered to the audience.

Li- I mean Rowena kicked him over the head with his walking stick.

"Hey! That's not a walking stick!" House said indignantly. "That's a-" Though the author couldn't care less and went on with the story.

The 4 Champions were stuck watching the fight that was taking place between Salazar, Rowena and a third party who was no were to be seen. That up until the appearance of the Winchester brothers grabbed their interest.

"Don't mind them; they're getting old and sloppy." Dean said with a grin.

Rowena turned to glare at him. "Excuse me, but I'm not the one talking to thin air!"

"Who asked for you're opinion, hell-man!" Salazar raged.

"Dexter, that was rude!" Sam scolded his older brother. Or were they even brothers anymore?

"Yes, we're playing the Durmstrang twins!" Dexter/Dean stated proudly. "Though we don't look much like twins (sweet drop), but the public loves us! Oh and we have a sister."

"Who look's nothing like us." Sam/Alan (that's his name!) sighed. "Buffy's gonna have a fuss over this."

"Why would I?" Buffy (the Vampire Slayer) who materialized herself next to Alan, asked curiously.

"Because of me of course!" Bella Swan stated proudly.

"A vampire! Why you little!" Buffy made a move towards Bella but Dexter and Alan restrained her.

"Kids, this" Alan pointed at Bella, "is Marilyn. Our younger sister."

"No, you two are supposed to be my younger brothers!" Bella/Marilyn corrected them.

"Hell no sissy! You're the youngest!" Dexter said in an authoritarian voice.

"Whatever sisters!" Spike popped in to save the show. "Let's just get this crack fic started, because I think the readers are getting bored of hearing you argue." He pursed his lips and looked around at the group of people assembled. "I'm Henry by the way! I'm playing Beauxbatons's founders with my old friend Buffy here. The writer allowed us to keep our old personalities so you won't get confused, which I consider to be a very bad idea, but whatever."

"Hey genius, we can't start the show!" Salazar said confidently. "Helga and Godric are missing!"

"Oh, damn those two! Are you making out now that you're not related anymore?" Henry/Spike asked irked.

"No!" To simultaneous shouts resounded in the…place and the next moment Claire Bennet and Peter Petrelli materialized themselves next to Salazar and Rowena.

"Sorry about that!" Peter/Godric apologized. "Sylar wanted to audition for Salazar and we had the misfortune of telling him the auditions were over." Everybody grimaced in understanding.

"So kiddies," Henry was the first to break the silence. "Are we clear on which is which?" He asked the 4 Champions.

The kids regarded him strangely for a loooong time then shock their heads.

Henry sighed. "Ok, then let's do the introduction again!" He exclaimed frustrated. "I (Spike) and this blonde babe (Buffy) are playing the Beauxbatons Founders: Noelle and Henry."

"But ou're not even French!" Fleur protested.

"Hey sweet cheeks! Mind keeping it down?" Henry scolded her. "Good!"

"We," Bella pointed at herself Sam and Dean, "are playing the Durmstrang Founders: Dexter, Alan and Marilyn!"

"I am Salazar Slytherin!" House announced proudly. The others waited patiently for him to introduce them. "What? I deserve my own introduction!" House huffed. "These guys," he pointed in Claire, Peter and Lisa's direction, "are Rowena (the old hag you'd like to bang), Helga (the underage cheerleader) and Godric (the Hero wanna-be). There! Satisfied?"

"NO!" The three shouted and looked ready to start a fight but Henry cut them off.

"Ok, kiddies. There you have it! Everything clear now?" The kids looked just as baffled as before. "Dang, alright just remember which school's founders we are, and we'll take care of the rest, ok?"

"Ok…assuming you are the founders, what would you want with us?" Cedric asked intrigued.

"Isn't it obvious? We're not satisfied with the tasks that they gave you!" House said outraged. "I mean, facing dragons? What genius came up with that idea?" He shocks his head.

"So you think the tasks were too hard?" Harry asked confused.

"No! We think they were too easy!" Dean answered.

"Too easy, but-" Cedric started complaining but was cut off by Buffy.

"So, we're gonna show you kids how a real tournament looks like!" She smiled wickedly.

The kids gulped. "Real tournament?" Fleur asked. " 'ow-"

"Well if you'd shut up we'd tell ya!" Spike said tired of being interrupted.

"Ok so here's the thing!" Dean explained. "There are gonna be 3 major challenges for you kids. Each challenge will have a number of sub-challenges equal to the number of founders the school has. Like for example: the Beauxbatons challenge will have 2 sub-challenges. Which brings us to a total of 9 sub-challenges!"

"Nine?!" Harry whispered weakly.

"Yes. Now, what these challenges will be and how they will unravel is up to the founders of the school that represent the major challenge. Anyway by the end of each major challenge we will eliminate one of you kids, if you all pass successfully that is, up until there is only one standing. And that will be the Try-Wizard Champion!" Dean finished proudly.

"Um, I think you lost them somewhere down the road." Sam said when he saw the confusion on the champions faces. "Let me try. You see, the tournament will be composed of 3 major challenges: the Hogwarts challenge, the Beauxbatons challenge and the Durmstrang challenge!" The kids nodded. "Each of these challenges contains sub-challenges of their own which the founders will hold, like for example the Beauxbatons challenge will have two sub-challenges: Spike's challenge and Buffy's challenge. Complete those and you've passed the Beauxbatons challenge! Understand?"

"Yeah, but that still counts as 9 challenges." Cedric said miserable. "And we've just won the tournament!"

"No you haven't!" House countered.

"Hey, those are the Hogwarts champion!" Claire complained.

"Oh! Then yes you did. Ha-ha, losers!" He laughed and pointed at the founders from the other houses.

"Sorry mate but, the games still on!" Spike gave him a superior smirk.

"Well aren't you cute!" House said acidly. "Ok then, let's get this over with!"

"Am, don't we have a say in this?" Harry asked.

"Of course not!" Dean smiled broadly and waved his hand in dismissal. "If you don't want to compete then you can just stand there and die in the middle of the task." He assured them. "You'd make our job easy."

The kids looked at him strangely. 'Was he serious?'

"Of course I am!" Dean smiled. He rubbed his hands together and said enthusiastically. "So, are you ready?"

"No." They said weekly.

"Well" He seemed to ponder over their answerer for a second but then the smile reappeared on his face. "We don't really care. Ok, first up is the Hogwarts challenge! Good luck!"

All the other founders of the other houses disappeared to leave the kids alone with the Hogwarts fonderors. "Ok kiddies; let's get the show on the road!" House said excited.

000000000

AN: This is the first chapter of my second fanfic, it's gonna be a short story, but I'm gonna take my time with this one. Tell me if you like the idea!


	2. Chapter 2

**WARNING**: FOR ALL YOU BELLA AND BUFFY FANS, IF I HEAR YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT THE WAY THEY ARE ACTING IN THIS FIC I WILL BAN YOU! THIS IS A PARODY AND IS THEREFORE NOT MEANT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY! IF YOU CAN'T TAKE A JOKE THEN LEAVE!

**Chapter 2: The Hogwarts Challenge**

**A. Gryffindor: Be brave!**

"Ok, who's first?" House asked his other 3 companions.

The 3 shared a look and were about to respond but House cut them off. "I'm last!"

"What? Don't you wanna go first?" Peter asked.

"No, I just wanted to know who wants to start, and I already claimed the last position!" House smiled broadly at them.

"But I wanted to be last!" Cuddy whined.

"_But I wanted to be last!"_ House mocked. "That position's taken!" Cuddy looked ready to smack him over the head with his walking stick but Peter had enough.

"I'm first!" He said. "Happy?" The others shrugged and nodded their heads.

"I'm semi-last!" Cuddy proclaimed.

"Whatever!" Peter sighed frustrated. The other 3 disappeared, or something and he was left alone with the 4 Champions. "Ok kids, time for your first task!"

"Why are 'ou calling us kidz? It's not like 'ou're that much older zen us!" Fleur huffed indignantly.

"No, _I'm_ not, but the Character I'm portraying is!" Peter gave her his usual crocked smile and began explaining the task. "So, you 4 are going to have to do a very simple task for me." He gave Fleur a mirror, Krum an egg, Cedric a glass of water and Harry a plate.

"What are these for?" Harry asked studying the plate carefully.

"I'll tell you in a bit." Peter answered and moved the kids around so that they had their backs to each other and were all facing different directions (Harry-North, Fleur-West, Krum-East and Cedric-South). "Good! Don't move!" Peter nodded satisfied. "Now for your task," he began circling the children. "This task is gonna be fairly easy to accomplish. You see, all you have to do, is follow the road that will appear in front of you at the start of the task, and cross the finish line with the item in you hand unscratched. Simple, right?" he asked smiling.

"Yeah, it _sounds _simple." Cedric said. "But weren't you the one with the save the world stuff? Aren't you gonna give us something related to that?"

"Oh, I would." Peter assured them. "But the writer doesn't want me to because, I'm portraying a much more smarter person then Peter Petrelli, so, I have to teach you guys a lesson, and _apparently_ saving the world is overrated." He sighed sadly. "Well time to begin the task! See you kids at the finish line! Oh, and one more thing," he had a plastic smile on his face and the words that came out of his mouth were spoken which such calm and contentment it made the kids hope for some good news. "The items in your hands are your life. If you break them, you die!" He waved and disappeared.

The kids stared stunned at the place Peter had been mere seconds ago.

Was he serious?

The shape of the room changed. It was no longer a hole with a white floor but a jungle with all shapes and sizes of trees imaginable, some were so high you couldn't see were they ended. In front of each kid was a road which led through the mountain of trees.

Harry sighed. "I guess the task has started."

"Yeah," Cedric agreed. "So, should we go?" He asked looking doubtfully at the path in front of him. It seemed relatively safe for as far as he could see, but he wasn't gonna rush in there first.

5 minutes had passed and none of the kids had moved.

"This is ridiculous!" Harry stated. "We can't sit here all day! I'm going in!" He said with more determination then he felt and marched into the woods. The other 3 sighed in annoyance and followed his lead.

----

Fleur gazed in utter shock at what was in front of her. She had been walking for nearly 10 minutes in the woods without an incident (something that had made her somehow hope that this insane task was just as easy as it sounded), but then she remembered that the founders had said that Dragons were an _easy_ task (easy her perfect French (and part veela) ass), and not a moment after she had finished her trail of thoughts had come across a huge wooden door in a mountain. The trees were too thick and seemingly glued together so, she reckoned that was where she was supposed to go.

After a good 3 minutes of pondering and seeing no other way out she had finally decided on opening the door, after which she sat about 5 more minutes glued in the doorway and contemplating on whether Peter Petrelli hated her or if she was just hallucinating.

The room was completely made of marble (e.g.: not the ideal place to drop something as fragile as the glass mirror she had in her hands), but that was not the thing that bothered her the most, not by far, no (she wasn't so dumb as to drop something for crying out loud!), the thing that did bothered her was what was _inside _the room.

_Dogs_! Six ferocious looking, growling dogs who had set their eyes on her the moment she had opened the door were the _least_ of her trouble. Actually the dogs seemed fairly easy considering the other two things that were awaiting her.

After the dog's territory there was a long part of the floor which was simply cut off and replaced with a pitch black hole. There were a number of marble platforms here and there which she doubted could hold her weight for much long if the thin piece of marble that sustained them was anything to go by. Round orbs was stuck from the ceiling in between the plates of marble, and it didn't take a genius to realize that she had to swing from plate to plate using the spheres like Tarzan jumped from tree to tree, but that was still manageable from her point of view (especially since the last plate looked stable enough to sustain an elephant). What discouraged her was the _thing_ waiting at the end of the road.

A gigantic spider with thick black hair covering his body and an annoying clicking sound that came out of his pincers left no doubt in Fleur's mind that it was an Acromantula. Its web covered up the entirety of the opposite wall so she wasn't even sure if there was an exit there or not, or worse, something else lurking in the shadows and waiting to kill her. Oh, she knew this task sounded much easier then it was! She had half a mind to turn around and find another way, though she didn't know if that was even possible.

10 minutes later Fleur was still standing in the doorway, debating on whether to risk her life and go forward or turn back. She decided on going forward. She'd be damned if she'd let a bunch of dogs and a giant spider scare her! The problem was how to proceed?

_Hmm_, the dogs hadn't made a move on her in the 15 or so minutes she'd been glued to the door, so that made Fleur think they would only attack if she entered the room, or if she attacked first. She decided on leaving the mirror at the door, she couldn't keep track of the dogs and it at the same time, so she glued it to a nearby tree and returned at the door. She took a deep breath and took a step inside.

The moment her foot landed on the other side of the threshold one of the dogs barked once and leaped at her with much more speed one would consider possible, but Fleur was ready for him. She aimed her wand and fired a stunning spell before exiting the room and ducking to the right. The ferocious beast dodged the hex and followed Fleur outside. It made another dash towards her while Fleur desperately tried to hex the dang thing and started running left and right, trying to dodge the dog's vicious claws and teeth.

The dog dove in front of her and started growling menacingly, Fleur took a step backwards and suddenly remembered that there were 5 other dogs waiting for her. In a sudden panic attack, she turned her head from the threat in front of her and looked towards the door only to see the dogs circling the doorway and snarling at her. She heard a frightening snarl, a few strides above her, and ducked without thinking, narrowly missing the dog's vicious claws. She concluded that she'd have to fight the dogs one by one, something for which she was grateful. She raised her wand wanting to get this over with as soon as possible. The dog turned sharply and darted towards her at neck-breaking speed. Fleur willed herself not to move and tried to calm her erratic breathing as she saw the wild beast come nearer and nearer.

_Now!_ Her mind screamed and she fired a stunning hex right between the dogs eyes then jumped quickly to the side, landing on her back a few good strides from the door. She huskily turned towards the door to see two dogs charging at her rather then the estimated one.

_Oh crap_, she thought as she saw the dogs advancing towards her, one on the right and the other on the left. She quickly rolled right through the middle of the monstrous creatures and shot a stunning hex to the one on her right, which apparently hit because when she turned to look at the dogs, one was down and one was madly running towards her. Fleur rolled on her left and tried shooting a stunning hex towards the animal, but apparently the thing had expected it and it leaped out of the way and made another dash towards her. She waited for the dog to come towards her just like the first one, but this one stopped right in front of her and dashed to the left then it slammed its mighty paw into her, knocking the breath out of her. She landed hard on the ground and when she opened her eyes and saw the vicious dog on top of her, his teeth bared and saliva running down its jaws.

She screamed.

The dog leaped straight for her face and as she saw those enormous fangs open and come closer to her, her breath caught in her chest and a cry of horror escaped her mouth followed by a fast successions of blasting hexes that sent the mighty beast flying ten feet in the sky and landing with a loud thumb a few feet from her.

A loud and chocked gasp escaped Fleur's lips as she scurried to her feet, her eyes darting madly towards the three dogs that were now charging towards her.

She was rooted to the spot. She was shaking madly, her feet were numb and refused to listen to anything her brain was sawing, her heart racing at 120miles/hour, her breathing erratic and her cheeks damp from the fresh tears, she just stood there, glaring in the eyes of the vicious creatures that were coming closer and closer.

Then something in her brain seemed to click and she lifted her wand and fired the most powerful blasting hex she knew which hit the middle dog straight in the face and threw him twenty feet backwards. The other two dogs momentarily stopped and turned to look at their fallen comrade which was exactly what Fleur needed. She hexed the beast on her right and was about to do the same to the one on her left when said creature darted to the left and made another move towards her. She rolled out of the way and started shouting curses like mad towards the dog, but the annoying beast always zigzagged around them. Her nostrils flared in discontent and she started running towards the crazy animal. She met him in the middle where she hexed the crap out of him and hit the ground at the same time as the mighty beast, breathing heavily.

She thought she'd get a chance to relax, but apparently fate had other plans installed for her. The door gave a loud shriek and slowly began closing itself much to Fleur's chagrin. She hastily stood up and ran towards the place she had left her mirror. With trembling hands she managed to take the glass object and sprinted towards the door barely making it through before it could close.

-----

"Dogs?!" Buffy asked indignant. "You sent dogs after her?"

"What's wrong with dogs?" Bella asked confused. "They can be really scary you know."

"Look, vampire, I didn't ask for your opinion!" Buffy snarled at the brunet.

"And what, pray tell, is wrong with my opinion?" Bella huffed indignantly.

"You don't have an opinion, because you're a soulless bitch!" Buffy snapped and threw herself at the girl. Spike tried to restrain her and was rewarded with a punch in the gut for his trouble, while Bella's eyes hardened and she readied herself for a fight.

"I do have a soul!" Bella snarled at the blond.

"WAIT!" Sam jumped in front of Buffy with his hands stretched out in surrender.

"What?!" Buffy and Bella asked annoyed.

"The author said we should postpone the fight for the end of the chapter," Dean answered instead of his brother.

"Yeah, right now, we're supposed to make fun of the kids for their performance thus far," Peter reminded them.

"Oh," said the two girls. "Ok," they both nodded and turned back to the poor blond girl who was barely catching her breath on the marble floor.

"What does she want us to say about this?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, I mean, poor girl," Bella commented. "Peter, you're heartless!"

"I have a complain to make," said House. Everybody groaned. "What?" he asked.

"House, don't be a jerk," Cuddy warned.

"Aw, like you all aren't dying to laugh at her misery, you sly bastards you," he threw them on of those scolding looks which a parent would use to show his disapproval for a childish behavior.

"No, we're not!" Peter defended.

"Oh, I believe that. If it's coming from you," House assured. Peter looked ready to protest but House cut him off by saying: "Look! The Bulgarian guy arrived at his destination. This should be fun!"

-----

_Is this a joke_, Krum thought as he saw what exactly was lying ahead of him.

No less then 12 bloody pixies were locked in a cage and making rude gestures towards him, a road made out of bricks that seemed relatively safe, and a gigantic mountain troll which was swinging his club fiercely from one side to the other, and right behind the troll stood a locked door, which he assumed would open once he had defeated the troll. Now this really didn't seem like such a big deal, after the excruciating long journey in the woods, then the field of grass where the sun shined down worse then it did in August and then the surprise of having the Chinese wall spread in front of him and only one stupid door that lead inside, which led to this.

Krum was fairly confident that those pixies were not just gonna stand there locked in the cage once he stepped inside and the brick wall looked to innocent for its own good. He sighed in frustration and made sure the egg was safely tucked in his pocket. He placed a sticking charm on it so it wouldn't fall down and stepped into the room. The moment he did so the door banged shut behind him and the cage with pixies swung open (as per expected), and the evil little buggers came rushing towards him from all sides. Krum started shouting hex after hex hoping to get a few of them before they got any closer. To his disdain, he only got two. The pixies lung at him and clouded his line of view, one grabbed a hold of his wand and was desperately trying to take it out of his hand, while the rest were flying in his face poking his eyes and pulling his hair or limbs.

Krum desperately tried to run away from the pixies and cast a few hexes left and right occasionally hitting one, but the little bugger that was hanging firmly on his wand was not far from steeling it. He desperately tried to reach the annoying thing with his other hand but his comrades had a firm grip on it. His eyes flashed and he blurred out a few colorful words before crashing his palms together and squashing most of the pixies, only 4 were left, and he was confident he could deal with those. He aimed a stunning hex towards one of the remaining pixies but the little bugger flew out of the way and stuck out it's thong at him. Krum swore and proceeded to shout hexes all over the place up until, half an hour later, the last pixy hit the ground stunned. Krum too fell down exhausted and decided to rest a bit before facing that suspicious looking road.

-----

"Pixies," House cried outraged. "You gave the hulking guy pixies and the flimsy girl 6 wild doggies to deal with?" He suddenly smiled. "You biased bastard! I never thought you had it in you!"

"It was an accident!" Peter said in his defense.

"Accident?!" Cuddy asked doubtfully. "How could you not know what the task contained?"

"Because the tasks weren't chosen when I positioned them towards a certain direction," Peter explained. "The tasks were chosen after I left, when the room changed shape. I had 9 different roads planed which would be distributed to the contestants in a random order. After they finish this round, they have two more others. The next round is already chosen for each contestant, while the final round will be again a random choice of the lottery. You could say that it depends on the luck of the contestant, it's completely not my choice."

"Aw, ain't that cute," House mocked. "First you're discriminating against women, now you're washing your hands off the responsibility. That's very mature of you Pete."

"I told you-"

Peter tried to say sounding exasperate, but House cut him off: "Yeah, yeah, right. We believe you," while waving a dismissive hand.

-----

Cedric groaned when he saw the 3 salamanders spitting fire everywhere.

_Great, like the dragon wasn't bad enough_, he thought bitterly.

------

"Didn't that kid get burned on his first task?" asked House suddenly sounding excited.

"I believe so," Dean nodded.

"You sent salamanders after a guy who suffered first degree burns?" Sam asked lividly.

"It wasn't my fault!" Peter protested.

"Peter that's cruel," Claire said giving Peter a reproachful glare.

"How could you?" Bella accused.

"I thought better of you," Buffy said clearly disappointed.

"I didn't mean for this to happen," Peter said again.

"It would be best if you stopped talking," Cuddy advised in a stern voice. Peter gave a resigned sigh and nodded his head.

------

After the salamanders there was a huge long space filled with plates coming out of the wall from time to time. Cedric deduced that he'd have to jump from one plate to the other up until he reached the Sphinx (which looked nothing next to sane) on the other side.

_Lovely_! He thought bitterly.

Cedric looked down puzzled at the glass of water and wondered what to do with it (because he was not going to take the easily breakable thing in with him). The room was made entirely out of marble (another reason to discourage him from taking the glass along), and the outside was a complete wasteland, with a few rotting plants here and there. He decided on leaving the glass at the threshold, because, with the way this task was turning out to be, he wouldn't be surprised if the door slammed shut after him.

So, he entered, and the door closed with a bang (as expected), which drew the salamander's attention towards him (as expected), then he put the glass down, close to the wall and ran in the opposite direction, with three fire spitting salamanders chasing madly after him.

He was thankful to Hagrid for one reason - the half-giant had actually taught them how to deal with such creatures. You see, it wasn't that hard: you just had to pour water on them; then counter with one of the Inflatus, Orchideous, Ducklifors or Melofors jinxes. Easy, right…not by the look of the way things were going.

Two of the Salamanders were tailing Cedric all over the place, while the third one was trying to cut him off. Cedric decided it would be better to go after the loner then face the duo so he darted towards the third Salamander and shouted "Aqua Erupto!" towards it.

The jet of cold water shot out of his wand and splashed the firry beast straight in the face knocking it dizzy. Cedric was just about to cast the Ducklifors jinx when he was forced to duck out of the way because one of the duo-salamanders shot a jet of roaring fire towards him, which missed by inches and collided with the fallen Salamander, reviving it.

"Damn you!" he cursed and rolled to the side as another jet came dangerously close to him.

The duo salamanders had split up and now the tree were coming at him from all sides.

Seeing the pile of moving plates, Cedric was hit by a sudden crazy, yet strangely enticing idea. He rose to his feat, shot a quick glance in the salamanders' way then jumped on the first plate.

The salamanders hissed threateningly at him, and threw a mouthful of burning fire his way, which Cedric needn't have to worry about dodging, since the plate moved out of its way by itself. He pointed his wand at the most nearest of the three creatures and shot a jet of water towards it, which, unfortunately, missed, since the plate was moving and therefore, prevented him from taking aim properly.

Well, _that_ was unnerving.

Cedric sighed when he realized his ingenious plan had a big flaw in it. Dare he go back on the ground and risk getting burned by the ugly creatures? He didn't think so. Cedric steadied his wand, so that it pointed directly in front of him, and waited for the plate to move back towards the other side…only problem was, it didn't. When the plate came in contact with the wall, it continued its way straight through, leaving him with only one of two options: 1. He jumped back on the ground, where the three salamanders were gathered, snarling and hissing menacingly at him, or 2. He jumped on the other plate, which unfortunately was half way towards the opposite wall.

_Lovely_, he grimaced and shouted "Aqua Erupto!"

It hit the salamander next to him straight in the face and pushed it back towards its other companion. Cedric leaped off the plate and jumped right next to the slightly dazed salamander, then shouted "Inflatus!" The spell collided with the confused creature and it immediately began growing in size, squashing one of its comrades against the wall, and pushing the other away from it. Cedric dove out of the way as the oversized creature blew up with a BANG, smashing one salamander up against the opposite wall, and knocking the one already squashed to the other wall unconscious. Cedric shot a Melofors jinx towards the unconscious one and it immediately turned into an oversized pinnate, which blew up soon after.

_Just one left_! He cheered and turned his wand on the still baffled creature.

"Orchideous!" he cried and watched as the spell collided with the last of the salamanders and blew it up in a rainbow of colorful flowers.

Glad that that was over with, Cedric made his way towards the door and picked up his glass of water. The road ahead didn't look so complicated. There was just a pair of bricks that came out of the wall and a Sphinx on the other side.

The mighty Egyptian creature turned its head towards Cedric and gave him a thunderous roar, which clearly told him he won't be solving riddles for the creature when he reached it.

------

"Oh, that was hilarious," House cried, much to the confusion of the other founders.

"What, pray tell, do you find so hilarious with the situation at hand?" Cuddy asked House, while dreading the answer.

"The vampire chick over there-" he pointed at Bella, "-was practically jumping with joy when prince charming over there-" he pointed at Cedric "-managed to finish off the last salamander."

"I was not!" Bella jumped to defend herself.

"Oh, but you were," Dean shot her a knowing grin. "I think someone might be crushing on one of our contestants," he taunted her.

"I think it's because he looks a lot like that murdering-psychotic-stalking vampire that you have back at home," Buffy hisses cuttingly.

"Well, at least my boyfriend has a soul, and can step out during the daylight, unlike both of your past boyfriends," Bella hissed back just as snappish.

"Hey, now wait just a moment here sweet-cheeks," Spike intervened. "You're not picking a fight with just Buffy here; you're stampeding on my pride!"

Bella however, chose to ignore Spike and concentrate on Buffy instead. "And did I forget the most important part: he actually loves me, and we get to live happily ever after, while you, well, pretty much don't!"

Buffy, for the second time that day, lashed out at the girl, while Spike cried in outrage saying: "That's a lye! I LOVE THIS GIRL!" and he pointed at Buffy who was barely restrained by Dean.

"Ladies! Hold the catfight until the end of the chapter, will yah!" Dean tried to say while desperately struggling to tackle Buffy to the ground. Bella was being easily restrained by Sam (partly because she wasn't fighting) while Spike was still howling about his undying love for Buffy.

Buffy suddenly snapped and said. "At least I'm not a fucking little whore who doesn't give a crap about her friends and jumps out to give her soul for a pretty face. Tell me honey, if Brad Pit came to your house and he was a vampire would you actually let him turn you so he could sleep with you?"

"Why you bitch," Bella suddenly threw Sam off her and made a wild dash towards the blond, who finally managed to kick Dean in the face and break free of his iron grip.

Peter sighed and stretched out his hands, trapping the two in midair. "Both of you stop!" The two girls turned to give Peter a murderous glare. "The author said that you can fight at the end of the chapter, _and no sooner_! Do I make myself clear?"

"She started it," Bella said.

"Ah, that is so a lye!" Buffy snarled.

"That is so childish!" Cuddy chided. "Two grownup women acting like little kids! You two best make up right now or you're off the show!"

"_No they aren't,_" the author said, but one pointed look from Cuddy had her cowering in fright and nodding her head vigorously.

Bella and Buffy sighed and turned towards each other. "I'm sorry," they both said clearly not meaning a single word. Peter nodded and let them go, but made sure to keep a close watch on them as to prevent any confrontation between the two.

------

Harry was looking apprehensive at the room which lay before him.

There were two mountain sized blast-ended skrewts (bigger then any he had seen in Hagrid's possession), which were spitting magma out of their…tail, then there was a black pit of sorts that didn't seem to have and end, with a whole line of parallel bars which where suspended up in midair, and at last, a real live Chimera (thank god it didn't have wings) which was roaring like a hungry lion…

Now, despite what people might think of Gryffindor bravery, Harry had considered numerous times turning back. Unfortunately, he couldn't.

You see, he had been walking unfazed throughout the wood, up until he came across a door in what Harry thought to be the biggest and largest tree he had ever seen. He had of course entered the place (being the foolish Gryffindor that he was) and the door had slammed shut behind him. Inside, he had stumbled across a seemingly never ending passageway, filled with flamed torches. He had walked along the road precautious, dreading he might activate a booby-trap of sorts, but had encountered none along the way. Then an opening had appeared in front of him, which led to this.

Now it had been fifteen minutes since he sat staring at the two monstrous-sized skrewts and wished, not for the first time, that Hermione Granger, his faithful friend and infamous know-it-all, was here to tell him how exactly he should get out of this mess.

For the life of him he couldn't remember how to deal with a normal sized blast-ended skrewt, let alone a giant sized one. So he decided he should solve this problem like any other that had popped out in his path: jumped head first into it and hoped for lady luck to help him out of it.

Harry charged blindly at the two ferocious looking skrewts in front of him, which flared their nostril like and enraged bull and dove at him. Lady luck seemed to be apparently on Harry's side, because the green eyed boy managed to run straight between them and left the two oversized hippogriffs to collide painfully with one another. The two monstrous creatures looked befuddled around, as tinny little stars appeared on the top of their heads, spinning round and round like the halo of an angel. Harry did the only reasonable thing he could think of: he threw a bunch of stunning hexes their way, which seemed to have no effect whatsoever on the creatures, because they all bounced off their shells. But he did manage to annoy the giant skrewts even more, so the next attack was vicious and he nearly got ran over by one of the massive creatures.

Harry managed to roll to the side and avoid his immediate death, while the skrewt collided head first with the wall and was left with a throbbing headache. The second skrewt came charging towards him and to Harry's great relief, didn't manage to stop itself in time before going too far off the platform and falling in the seemingly endless pit.

Harry was thankful to be rid of at least one of the life threatening creatures, but unfortunately for him, he took his eyes off the other skrewt for far too long, and therefore, was hurtled across the platform and straight into the opposite wall by a direct hit from the skrewt.

Harry fell to the ground with a muffled thump and moaned in pain as his already abused back collided with the concrete floor. The skrewt dove in for another attack leaving deep footprints across the marble floor as it went. Harry desperately tried to climb to his feet using the wall as support, but his back protested heavily to the sudden movement, so he slipped down the wall, just as the skrewt came smashing into it, earning itself another mind-blowing pain. Harry suddenly found himself facing the confused face of one very large skrewt and scrambled to his feet, in spite of the loud protests his back was making. He staggered on his feet, right besides the skrewt and thanks to the sudden dizziness that hit him because of the hasty movement, he fell sideways, right into the pit in which the first skrewt had fallen earlier.

Panic rose up inside of him when he saw the edge of the plate rapidly fading away. He pulled out his wand in a swift motion and took aim for one of the suspended pillars and shouted: "Carpe Retractum!"

The spell struck home, and Harry soon came to an abrupt halt, then found himself being hurtled back upwards faster then when he had fallen. He released the hold on the spell and went crashing down like a bullet, straight on top of the blast-ended skrewt.

The skrewt, sensing the unwanted traveler, began bouncing madly in an attempt to lung the boy off of it, while Harry held on for dear life. The skrewt gave a mighty roar and banged its head onto the wall, throwing Harry head first into the concrete surface.

Harry, not for the first time today, slid off the wall like a fly which had just been squished and, once on the ground, he grasped his head in his hands and rolled around like a barrel-roll straight underneath the gigantic skrewt. The mighty beast stumbled on its feet and leaned slightly forward just as Harry opened his eyes. At seeing the massive form of the creature come dangerously close, Harry pulled out his wand in a wave of panic and shot every spell he knew towards the massive shape.

"STUPEFY! INFLATUS! BOMBARDA! FLIPENDO!"

The skrewt blew up after the second spell, leaving the other two to rocket up towards the ceiling and crash into the marble piece, exploding in a shower of multicolored sparks. Harry drew in a breath of relief and lay motionless on the hard floor. His eyes closed in contentment, and before he knew it, he was off to dream land, the plate and the founders' task completely forgotten.

------

"Aw, that's it with round one?" House asked disappointed.

"No, actually, that was only the first part of round one, they have two more to go," Peter corrected him calmly.

"Three nerve wrecking rounds for the poor little kiddyes," said Spike in a sympathetic tone. "Man, you're heartless!"

"Mm Hmm," nodded Dean. "I never wanna get on the bad side of Peter Petrelli."

"I'm not heartless!" Peter whined. "I'm letting them rest, aren't I?"

The other occupants of the room just scowled at him.

"Fine!" Peter snapped. "Go ahead and judge me! I'll se how you react when it's your turn!"

------

After thirty minutes of rest and pondering on what to do with the annoying spider up ahead, Fleur finally rose to her fear and looked determined at the road in front. She took a deep intake of breath and pointed her wand at the first round orb screaming "Carpe Retractum!" The spell stuck the orb and pulled her slightly upwards. Immediately after feeling the pull, Fleur lung herself forward and dove towards the first plate. She released the spell the moment she found herself before it and fell with a thumb on it. The plate started to give away mere seconds after the impact so, Fleur wasted no time in casting another spell towards the second sphere and jumping on to the next plate.

The tedious cycle continued for another seven times, up until Fleur came across the final pillar where she came to a halt, right in front of the gigantic spider. This pillar didn't have a sphere to guide her forward, because it was close enough to the spider's territory that she was confident she could jump the distance without the use of a hovering charm. In fact Fleur had her wand pointed towards the previous sphere and was anxiously waiting for the spider to jump on this pillar. Given its large size, it wouldn't actually be able to balance itself on the barely one meter sized plate and would most certainly fall down. Now the question was: whether it was stupid enough to jump, or was it waiting for here to come to him?

The spider proved to be stupid, because it lung head first at her without thinking. Fleur promptly cast the Pulus spell on the sphere and was whoosh away from the enormous creature, which landed on the pillar on its two back legs and fell forward, straight in the abyss below.

_Well, that was easy_, she thought happily as a feeling of relief washed over her.

But now it was time for the tricky part. She broke the Pulus spell that was holding her suspended in midair, and cast the Carpe Retractum spell on the sphere. She felt herself come to and abrupt halt, and was violently shoved back up, then down and up and down, until she came to a halt, feeling rather dizzy thanks to all the bouncing she did.

After the fuzziness left her, Fleur pushed herself backwards and then forwards, repeating the cycle up until she swung before the more stable looking platform and released the spell, landing with a nasty thumb, straight on her ass. She bit her lips to stop the cry of pain that was threatening to come out and lifted herself up with one hand on her aching behind. She glared doubtfully at the web and hoped that there were no more spiders hiding behind it, because she wasn't sure she'd like a repeat of the previous experience.

"Incendio!" she cried. A roaring jet of fire burst out of her wand and collided with the web, smoldering it in a matter of seconds. To her great relief, there were no spiders hidden behind the web, only a wooden door with and old styled handle decorated the wall in front. She gave a soft sigh, before sprinting on the other side, and heading for the door.

------

"Smart girl," House complimented, stunning the other founders into silence. House glared at them. "What?"

"You're praising someone?" Cuddy asked socked.

"Oh, come one! I can be nice when I want to," House said sounding offended.

"I'm sure you can," Cuddy said smiling doubtfully at him.

House suddenly turned towards them smiling victorious, something which unnerved all of the people around. "That means the girl's out of the red-zone Pete, you've failed to slay her!"

The occupants of the room sighed in relief. While Peter turned to give House a curious look.

"You know we're not out to _kill_ the kids right? This _is_ after all a friendly competition and therefore, we shouldn't deliberately place the contestants in danger, right?" he asked carefully.

"Oh, you mean you had no intention of killing your contestants when you chose to let them face off against a Sphinx, Chimera, a giant spider and so on?" House asked confused.

"No, I only wanted to test their bravery; after all, I am representing Godric Gryffindor," Peter answered.

"That makes no sense whatsoever," House said.

------

Cedric knew one thing about the moving plates ahead: it wasn't gonna be easy to get pass them. For one, they all met in the middle, two, they all went into the wall, and would leave him standing on nothing if he had the misfortune of missing one plate. So he deduced that he had two options to solve this matter: 1 – he could jump from on to the other and hope he was fast enough to get to the other side before they could move (considering the fact that there were about ten plates we were talking, and they moved at the speed of sound, he doubted that would work) or 2 – he could either use the hovering charm and jump from plate to plate, like a monkey did from tree to tree (which was a lot more plausible in his opinion).

_Hovering charm it is_, he thought bitterly. Now the only problem was the Sphinx…he was still keeping his fingers crossed for a riddle on that one.

He sighed resigned and jumped on the first plate. To his surprise, the Sphinx jumped on the last plate as well and gave a sudden roar.

_Well, well_, it looked like he was going to have to fight the Sphinx on the moving plates. Now that should be interesting.

The mighty beast didn't take long before jumping on the second plate and Cedric was forced to do the same, else he risked loosing the plat under his feet.

He landed unceremoniously on his back, and scrambled to his feet in a haste as he saw the plate rapidly approaching the wall and propelled himself onto the next plate with the help of a hovering charm.

The sphinx jumped on the next plate as well, and Cedric noted, to his great relief, that the plate on which the mighty beast sat was moving towards the right, while his was heading towards the left. He grinned and used a hovering charm to jump on the next pillar, hoping that if he might be fast enough, he might just make it to the door without having to face the sphinx.

His joy was short-lived however, when the mighty beast gave a frightening roar and leaped right on the plate in front of him.

Cedric gulped as he saw himself caught between the upcoming wall and the threatening creature, and just as the sphinx dove at him, he jumped at the plate in the far right, which had already completed its journey through the wall and was heading back towards them.

Cedric jumped on the last plate and finally made it to the door, only to find out that it was locked. He cursed as he realized that he had to face the sphinx in order to get through.

He jumped on the first plate just as the mighty creature landed on the end plate and roared threateningly at him. Cedric jumped backwards two more plates and waited patiently for the sphinx to follow his lead, and when the creature did, he shot a blasting charm at it, which de-balanced it and forced it to fall down in the abyss below.

"Well, that was easy," Cedric said as he made his way back towards the door, and found it unlocked this time.

-------

"Oh, thank GOD," Bella cheered.

"Hold it down sister, you're not supposed to get emotionally attached to the contestants remember," Dean teased.

"Honestly Vampire are you gonna cheat on your _husband_ with his lookalike!" Buffy snapped at her.

"No!" Bella snapped back at the blond. "And I don't see how anything I do is your business!"

"Trust me I have better things to do that to babysit you," Buffy said.

"Oh, of course you do. Look at your ex over there, he looks like he could use your company better then I can," Bella shooed her away.

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "And leave you alone with a human so that you can end up turning him or sucking him dry, I don't think so!"

"I've never fed on a human!" Bella protested.

"Layer!" Buffy snarled.

"Ladies!" Sam intervened before the two could start a fight. "Save it for the end of the chapter!"

"Look! Another one escaped unharmed," House shouted and pointed at Diggory. "Though I think if you would have offed that one the Vampire chick over there would have snapped your neck right about now."

"Are you implying something?" Bella snarled.

"He's implying that you're a bitch," Buffy said.

Bella jumped on Buffy, and a catfight ensured. The other founders were already tired of their mindless bickering at the moment and decided to let them fight it out.

-------

Krum rose to his feet and advanced slowly to the yellow road ahead, whiles giving it a suspicious glare. There was absolutely no way in hell, he'd believe it was as innocent as it looked. Probably it was just waiting to bite his leg, or catch him in some sort of elaborated plan, he thought unaware of what Gryffindor stood for, because if he had know, maybe he wouldn't have been as surprised to feel the ground give away when his foot landed on the yellow brick road.

"Oh, come on!" Krum cried in outrage. "Do you actually expect me to run this?!"

No one answered.

"Seems so," he said disgruntled.

Krum took a deep breath and mentally tried to prepare himself for the task up ahead, he was the Durmstrang champion after all, he wasn't about to give up anytime soon. He took another deep breath and exhaled slowly before fixing his gaze on the yellow brick road and crouching down in front of it like an athlete would do in a Muggle track competition. He gave a mighty push and then dashed for the brick floor with as much speed as his strong and bulky legs could muster.

The bricks on which he stepped fell apart not a second after he moved onto the next one, but luckily Krum managed not to trip once and speed up towards the towering mountain troll ahead, which raised its club menacingly at him, ready to strike him down the moment he was within reach.

Krum neared the monster's podium.

The troll lung its club forward ready to send the famous Quidditch player flying.

Krum ducked – and remained in the same place for a second too long.

The wall underneath his feet collapsed.

Krum fell into the bottomless pith.

In a desperate attempt to save his pitiable life, he grabbed onto the troll's club and was hurtled upwards as the beast raised its club to dumbly stare at the place the Bulgarian seeker had last been.

Krum was hanging loosely from the massive tree trunk – or whatever it was – and considered his options.

Let go and fall onto the fragile brick road. Which implied that – if he did, by some absurd miracle, managed to avoid falling into the pith – he'd still have the troll to deal with afterwards – and there wasn't much room on the platform for both the troll and him.

Try to aim a good hex at the troll and then worry on whether he'd make it to the platform or not.

Hmm...

He'd rather deal with the troll first thank you very much! Besides, he was in the perfect position to aim at the creature's neck or head (though that was probably thicker then the rest of his body) and deliver a fatal blow to the beast.

He pushed himself forward and swung a leg around the thick wooden club, then when he felt confident enough in his stability on the club, he pulled out his wand and aimed it at the thick creature's (who was still dumbly inspecting the fallen bridge in front) neck and shouted:

"Diffindo!"

The spell struck the troll straight in the neck, and in the next instance, a sword like gash cut clean into its skin and blood started oozing out uncontrollably. The troll howled in pain and started tossing his club wildly around. Krum hastily threw himself over the edge as the club took a turn upwards. He tried hanging on for dear life as best he could, but when the club struck the ceiling and the debris came raining down on him – a rather large piece smacked straight into his head which nearly knocked him unconscious – he lost his hold on the piece of wood and fell hard right onto the brick wall, which crumbled under the pressure and sent him plummeting into the abyss below.

Panic stricken and desperate to see the light of day again, he pointed his wand at the abyss below and cast a rapid succession of hovering charms, which sent him rocketing towards the surface. He saw the troll crash through the yellow brick floor and drop pass him, with blood still poring out of his injured neck, and took no notice of it whatsoever as his eyes frantically searched around for anything he could use to get out of this life threatening situation. And then it struck him in the form the ancient looking doorknob which would lead him out of this god forsaken place.

"Carpe Retractum!" he roared pointing his wand at the door in front.

The jelly like beam shot out of his wand and connected with the doorknob just a Krum began his descent towards the abyss once moor. The jelly contracted and flung Krum in and archway fall, slamming him straight into the wall above the platform on which the door stood. Krum nearly lost his grip on his wand as he bumped head first into the hard surface which had him seeing stars, but somehow he managed to hang on.

Panting and more then a little dazed, Krum flung his hand upwards and managed to take a firm grip of the floor above. Then he tightened his grip on his wand and slowly started climbing the abrupt wall with his jelly-like legs. He slipped more then once, but persistent as he was, he managed to swing his legs over the edge and drop dead-tired on the stoned platform.

It was quite some time later that Krum felt capable enough to rise to his feet and edge closer to the innocent looking door (innocent his ass! The brick wall looked just about as innocent and that proved to be a devil's trap fully equipped with horns and a tail to match! He wasn't gonna take any chances).

Krum slowly reached out a trembling hand towards the doorknob and after brushing his fingers over the surface and making sure it was safe, he slowly turned the knob and opened the suspicious looking door.

-------

"And that's the third one," House said disappointed. "Seriously Peter you'd better managed to off the shrimp by the end of this challenge to regain some of your lost pride."

"I have no intention of killing the kids!" Peter snapped.

Cuddy came over to House and smacked him over the head with his walking stick. "When are you ever gonna learn to behave! ...and treat human lives with more respect!" she smacked him once more to make sure the message sunk in.

"Aw," House moaned, clutching his head in pain.

Somewhere in the back a head was smashed into the wall and a fist collided with someone's gut as Bella and Buffy continued their absurd fighting.

-------

At some point in time Harry finally decided to crack an eye open and stiffen a yawn as sleep slowly forsake him.

At seeing the weird and unfamiliar room and the roaring Chimera on the other side, Harry thought that maybe he was still dreaming after all and any moment now Ron would rush in the room to wake him up while screaming madly about the fact that he was late for the third task and so on.

Then he suddenly remembered that Ron had done just that this morning – or was it the previous one – and the events of the day came crashing back to him. The maze, Krum, Fleur, the Founders, Peter Petreli posing as Godric Gryffindor.

_God what a twisted world_, he thought as he looked apprehensive at the roaring Chimera in front.

Now, Harry didn't have to be Hermione level bright to understand that he was royally screwed. Because the only thing that connected the ancient beast's platform with his were the suspended pillars which were apparently floating on air. So, naturally that meant that he had to swing his way towards the other platform and fight the Chimera. Only problem was: the Chimera might kill him before he even landed on the platform, and as brave as Harry was, he knew perfectly well the difference between stupidity and heroism (at lest he hoped he did), so that meant that facing the Chimera directly was out of the question.

Then what else could he do?

He pondered on that for a few seconds and then he finally remembered that he was a wizard and therefore was in no way restricted to being close to an object to knock it down. He just had to shoot it down!

Proud of his ingenious strategy, Harry hastily aimed his wand at the beast, a curs at the tip of his tongue and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that _something_ was beginning to grow out of the beast's back.

_Wings_! The beast had grown two gigantic, eagle-shaped wings that looked strong enough to sustain an elephant.

_Well shoot_! Harry cursed as the beast gave a mighty roar and lifted itself up in the air.

It dove towards Harry without a second's thought and swift as the wind, it had crossed the distance between them and was almost upon the very much baffled teen.

Harry snapped out of his stupor when he saw the mighty beast so near and quickly dove out of the way. He rolled to the side and quickly jumped on his feet, head spinning madly around to locate the beast. The beast roared and made another dash for him.

"Stupefy!" Harry shouted.

The beast dodged the spell and took another lung at him. Harry ducked out of its way, but not low enough it seems, as the beast's claws took a firm grip of Harry's sweater and whooshed him up into the air with it.

The Chimera guided Harry towards the endless pith and dropped him in the abyss below. A piercing scream escaped the green eyed boy when he saw himself swallowed by the gigantic hole below and on pure instinct (and pure desperation), his wand shot up towards the pillars and he cried:

"Carpe Retractum!"

His aim proved true as his descent towards the abyss below came to an abrupt halt and he was forced upwards towards the suspended pillars.

The chimera roared in discontent and lung towards him, barely missing him by inches and Harry shot higher and higher. Frustrated the beast took another shot at him again, but this time, the boy's ascent came to an abrupt halt and the boy went plummeting down below and out of the winged beast's reach. The beast roared and shot towards him like a rocket just as Harry's fall came to a halt and the boy was trusted back up towards the descending beast. The Chimera took and abrupt turn left, just as Harry started swinging towards his left and the two collided head-first with one another.

The crash knocked both parties dizzy, but Harry's spell forced the boy upwards and seeing as his head was currently forced downwards thanks to the collision with the chimera's hard scull, the boy was sent twirling upwards in an arc of sorts, up until his concentration on the spell broke and he dropped with an echoing thump on the winged beast's back.

The Chimera, sensing its unwanted passage, turned a 180 hoping to drop the unwelcomed charge. Much to the beast's displeasure, Harry took a firm grip of its lion's mane and stubbornly held on, despite the beast's wild trashing and squirming.

Seeing that the strategy at hand didn't work, the beast took to flying around the place at full speed and then made a wild dash towards the pillars, hoping to knock the boy off. Harry panicked at seeing the rapidly approaching mass of the suspended pillar and hastily threw his wand in front while shouting:

"BOMBARDA!" at the top of his lungs.

The spell struck the side of the pillar and exploded, emitting a shockwave which knocked the Chimera and Harry back towards the platform on which the beast had came from. Harry lost his grip on the Chimera and fell hard on his ass and went topping backwards on his head, landing in a rather awkward position on his face, with a headache to boast. The Chimera received none of the good side of the stick, despite its mighty claws which dug into the ground and sent it spinning head first into the ground for all their worth.

In a rush of panic, Harry stumbled to his feet, ignoring the dizziness which struck him thanks to the fast motion, and locked wildly around for the ancient beast. He saw the Chimera stager to its feet just a few strides away from the cliff and – suddenly struck by a brilliant idea – he pointed his wand at the beast and bellowed:

"BOMBARDA!!"

The spell struck the mighty beast in the side and blew up a good chunk of its right side along with its wing and the shockwave sent it flying clear off the cliff and plummeting down below into the unending abyss.

Harry ran to the edge of the cliff and only allowed himself a sigh of relief once he had scooped the abyss below for any sign of the mighty beast. He sank to the ground a few steps away from the edge and allowed himself a few minutes of rest. Then, worn, battered and exhausted he shakily made his way towards the door upfront and with a tired sigh, he opened the handle and walked into the eerie room.

-------

Harry walked tiredly into dark room to come face to face with his other three contestants Cedric, Fleur and Krum which were sitting contently on the ground and smiling up at him as if being there was the best thing that could have happened to them.

"What are you-" Harry started to ask, but Cedric cut him off by saying:

"We won!"

It took a few seconds for the message to sink in, but when it did, Harry too collapsed onto the floor in relief, a blissful smile appearing on his face.

The room looked just like the giant pith with a white floor from which they had first left, a rather depressing sight, but to the four champions, it was paradise.

Peter Petrelli popped out of thin air a few strides away from them, a beaming smile on his face which only made the kids' smiles widen.

"Congratulations!" He beamed. "You've all successfully passed the first Hogwarts task!"

The kids couldn't help cheering loudly when they heard that.

"And I hope you've learned a valuable lesson today," Peter continued.

"That there's always something worse," Cedric supplied.

"No," Peter smiled thinking it was a joke. "That you're _human_, and therefore _limited _and most certainly _not _indestructible. Because, you see, what I wanted you to learn today is that there is a big difference between being brave and being out right stupid or suicidal. Being brave is not always about victory, it take a lot more courage out of someone to accept defeat rather then fight vainly for a victory that was never his to begin with. And while honor and recklessness cane every so often be confused, it is best sometimes to choose your battles rather then jump head first into a fight and hope for the best. Because honestly, had I given you the choice of facing your tasks or skipping them, would you have gone through with them anyway?" He finished with a knowing smirk.

The kids vigorously shock their heads no.

"Figures," Peter sighed in defeat. "Well, my task is over and done with, and believe me, it was one of the easiest you'll get! Knowing my teammates I hope you're ready for the worst." The kids' faces fell at hearing this. "Good luck in the following task kids!" Peter said and with a final wink, he disappeared again and this time in his place, Claire Bennet popped up.

"Hello kids! Ready for the Hufflepuff challenge?" she smiled sweetly at them.

-------

**AN**: God 23 pages, this was long! Tell me what you thought of it and if you have any suggestions at all for the upcoming tasks.

Cheers!


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